Picking up the puck from Martin Erat, Oleksy charged towards the faceoff dot. Blue Jackets winger Cam Atkinson attempted the poke check, but Steve O went all sick nasty, blowing past him. Oleksy then dished the puck to the front of the net and Laich finished the play. Beautiful.

“That one surprised me,” head coach Adam Oates said with a laugh, adding that he was “panicking for a second.”

“Great play, and I’m glad,” Oates continued. “He’s a guy, from where he came from last year, has just done nothing but continually improve. I know he’s been a sponge with Calle [Johansson] and that’s great to see. Great to see him rewarded that way.”

After the game, Oleksy played the dangle off as just another play. He was doing his job, not trying to make GIF-worthy material.

“I knew the guy thought I was gonna rip it right away,” he told me. “I kind of let him make the first move and got around him. Good traffic in front so I was just trying to get it through to the net and Brooksie was ready to tap it home.”